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Editorial: NCAA, GOP should take a chance on Las Vegas

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9:24 p.m. PDT March 22, 2014

New Mexico's Cameron Bairstow shoots over Wyoming's Larry Nance Jr. during a Mountain West Conference tournament basketball game this month. Las Vegas has hosted the Mountain West tournament, and several others, but is barred from hosting March Madness games by the NCAA.
(Photo:
AP
)

A week ago, it seemed as though every college basketball team in the West could be found somewhere in Las Vegas.

The Mountain West Conference, featuring the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and University of Nevada, Reno, held its tournament in Las Vegas. So did the Pacific 12, the West Coast Conference and Western Athletic Conference (yes, there’s still a WAC).

This week, those same arenas are quiet. Despite all the success that Las Vegas has had in hosting the conference tournaments, the NCAA has decreed that there will be no post-season in Nevada — not for basketball, not for any other college sport.

It’s not because of a lack of facilities. It’s not because of a shortage of hotel rooms. It’s not because of the difficulty of getting flights to Las Vegas. (Imagine trying to book a last-minute flight to Spokane.)

No, it’s because of the NCAA’s long-standing anger over legal sports betting in Nevada. As long as Nevada allows betting on college athletics, the NCAA will not hold any tournaments in the state. (The conferences decide for themselves where their tournaments will be held.)

Possibly billions of dollars will be bet illegally on March Madness in the coming weeks, but the NCAA is worried about the millions bet legally in Nevada. It’s further proof that the organization’s hypocrisy knows few bounds.

The logical choice

The Republican National Committee probably isn’t worried about legal gambling on the 2016 presidential contest, but the feud between Nevada and the NCAA should serve as a warning to proponents of holding the GOP’s next presidential nominating convention in Las Vegas. Las Vegas may be the logical choice, but, as the NCAA has demonstrated, logic doesn’t always carry the day.

On Friday, Nevada officials were in Washington, D.C., to make the case for Las Vegas as the best choice for the 2016 convention. A presentation scheduled for earlier in the month was postponed because of bad weather in the East.

Some were convinced Las Vegas was a shoo-in. (Representatives of other cities vying for the convention were equally confident, of course.) After all, there are plenty of first-class hotel rooms close to the convention facilities in Las Vegas; there would no need for long bus rides from hotel to convention center, as there was two years ago in Tampa, Fla. McCarran International Airport is one of the busiest in the nation, with flights from just about anywhere in the country. And, when the convention gets boring, as political conventions often do, there’s no shortage of entertainment. (Though, if tourism officials in Las Vegas are expecting a windfall from delegates to a political convention, they’re in for disappointment.)

Partying in Sin City

The question remains, however: Do the social conservatives who make up the base of the Republican Party want to be seen partying in Sin City? It was reputation, after all, not the economics and convenience of holding meetings in Las Vegas that led federal officials to bar employees from attending conventions there.

It’s also reputation, not reality, that keeps the NCAA from scheduling tournament rounds in Las Vegas.

The NCAA claims to be worried about cheating, but Nevada sports books have long partnered with the NCAA to watch out for cheating. The most recent point-shaving scandal, in Arizona, was uncovered when Nevada bookmakers noticed unusual betting patterns and alerted the NCAA.

Nor have there been any suggestions of gambling-related cheating involving the conferences that have been holding their tournaments in Las Vegas. Indeed, all have been so happy with Las Vegas that they’ve extended their contracts, even though some Mountain West coaches have complained about UNLV’s home-court advantage (which, so far, hasn’t much of an advantage).

It’s time for the NCAA to end its boycott of Nevada. There’s no more sin in Sin City than there is in, say New Orleans, and the facilities are better, there are more hotel rooms, and it’s easier to get to.

The city has demonstrated that it can put on not one or two but as many as three tournaments at the same time. A single round of March Madness would be easy.

Likewise, the Republicans should give Las Vegas a real shot at the 2016 convention. When it comes to being a good host, nobody does it better than Las Vegas.

SNAPSHOT

ISSUE:

Meeting in Las Vegas

OUR VIEW:

It’s time for the prejudice against Las Vegas to end. There’s no better place to hold sporting events and conventions.